Please circulate this video of the police attack against the Occupy Oakland movement.

Police have stepped up their attacks to crush the Occupy actions across the country.

Police forces in a number of cities have conducted mass sweeps and arrests of peaceful protesters. From the mass false arrest of more than 700 on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1 to mass arrests in Chicago, Atlanta, Oakland and beyond, the police forces have made clear their role as the servants of the 1 percent.

In Oakland, the police viciously attacked Occupy Oakland with tear gas, flash grenades and projectile weapons. Scott Olsen, an Iraq war veteran, was shot in the head by the police with a projectile. Scott is reported to be in critical condition.

As the video vividly shows, the Oakland police directly targeted those protesters who bravely tried to give aid to the injured.

We must all stand together. Let’s continue to organize, occupy and protest in the coming days and weeks. This is a global grassroots movement for justice and change. We won’t be pushed back by police violence.

There will be several demonstrations in cities across the country in solidarity with Occupy Oakland. Below are some of the actions that have been announced; Occupy movements from across the country are publicizing many others through their websites, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

In the Bay Area: There will be demonstrations at 6 p.m. nightly at 14th and Broadway in Oakland called by Occupy Oakland until protesters until their occupation resumes.

In New York City: Gather at Liberty Plaza tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 26) at 9 p.m. for a march.

Late last night, Scott Olsen, a former Marine, two-time Iraq war veteran, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, sustained a skull fracture after being shot in the head with a police projectile while peacefully participating in an Occupy Oakland march. The march began at a downtown library and headed towards City Hall in an effort to reclaim a site—recently cleared by police—that had previously served as an encampment for members of the 99% movement.

Scott joined the Marines in 2006, served two-tours in Iraq, and was discharged in 2010. Scott moved to California from Wisconsin and currently works as a systems network administrator in Daly, California.

Scott is one of an increasing number of war veterans who are participating in America’s growing Occupy movement. Said Keith Shannon, who deployed with Scott to Iraq, “Scott was marching with the 99% because he felt corporations and banks had too much control over our government, and that they weren’t being held accountable for their role in the economic downturn, which caused so many people to lose their jobs and their homes.”

Scott is currently sedated at a local hospital awaiting examination by a neurosurgeon. Iraq Veterans Against the Wars sends their deepest condolences to Scott, his family, and his friends. IVAW also sends their thanks to the brave folks who risked bodily harm to provide care to Scott immediately following the incident.

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This sort of thing has occurred before in the US, concerning Iraq Veterans Against the War:

“On the evening of Wednesday October, 15th 2008, a demonstration outside of Hofstra University during the third and final presidential debate led to the brutalization of protesters, many of whom were veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Protestor Nick Morgan, a 24 year-old veteran of the Iraq war who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was nearly killed when he was thrown to the ground and trampled by a police horse. The horse stepped on Morgan’s face, shattering his lower orbital, and rendering him unconscious.

Morgan is a member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), an organization whose membership, according to member Matthis Chiroux who was present at the demonstration, consists of roughly 13,000 veterans and service members who oppose the war in Iraq. Chiroux says the organization is “for the troops, by the troops,” and that they strive to offer a more “broad account of a war largely misunderstood or ignored by the American public.” See: http://fnewsmagazine.com/2008/11/iraq-veteran-nearly-killed-by-police-horse-during-protest/

I am a veteran too, and I was once arrested along with Matthis Chiroux (who is no longer with IVAW) at an ANSWER Coalition sponsored anti-war protest in Washington, DC, which was held on March 20, 2010. At this protest in Washington, in front of the White House, in Lafayette Park, Matthis burned an American flag, which I thought was the stupidest thing he could have ever done, and this was something we argued about, in jail, until we were released and went our separate ways a few days later.

At that time I was unaware of, and very naive concerning, the true nature of the ANSWER Coalition and all such far Left organized protest groups. I was then, and I am now, against the wars, and I thought everyone involved with these protest groups were as well-meaning as I was, which most of the people involved in the actual protests are; but, since that time, I have come to realize the truth: the radical organizers of these protests, like the radical organizers of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, are controlled by the US government, CIA, and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) via OTPOR/CANVAS.

Occupy Oakland was recently able to provoke such violence, in the form of a riot, which occurred on October 25, 2011 and resulted in some injuries (see above). Both Occupy Oakland and Stop The Machine, rather than peacefully occupying city parks and plazas, have been engaging in invasive, disruptive, angry “actions” .

Im receptive to what your saying here, but what I have problems with is your analysis that anyone needs to be provoked. Surely youre aware that police need no provoking to mete out violence to whomever is veiwed as an internal enemy. You also stated that a riot was whay they wanted and that is what they got. But from my monitoring of events it was a police riot. As has been in every domestic instance of disorder I have been aware of in my adult life. I look foward to your reply.

I understand what your are saying. And it’s no coincidence this occurred in Oakland, because Oakland is a rough city and the cops kill people in Oakland for no reason at all. The same goes for most large cities these days. OWS has always been looking for trouble, which is why they don’t stay in their parks but go on the march, which instigates conflict situations. Had these cats stayed in the park no one would have gotten hurt, and the same goes for NYC and everywhere else. OWS is an occupation/invasion movement, not an just a peaceful occupation.